The plot involved the young "demon spies" trying to find a cache of firearms on the estate of a daimyo before he can use them to rebel against the Shogun, and there were plentiful plot twists and turns before the climactic showdown. [Possible spoiler alert]

One thing that slightly puzzled me is that the lead character says at the end of the film that he wanted to know why his fallen comrades defiantly clenched their fists at their moment of death...what were they grasping for.

Well, I recall earlier in the movie, after the demon spies completed the training their ruthless master vowed to show them one last lesson, and that was how to die properly. So the masked master sliced off his face and killed herself, and clenched his fist as he expired.

So...I guess the students were merely emulating him, but the ending suggests there's some hidden meaning that the surviving hero has to find in his next adventure. I don't believe they ever made a sequel however, so while the ending was slightly ambiguous by intent, the overall the film was very exciting.

However, this other master has an enemy in a local crime boss. The latter deviously exploits Jackie's character (named Yuan) to take down the crippled leader's martial clan once and for all, and this drives the plot of the movie and Yuan's growing crisis of conscience.

Ultimately though, in a cliche common to many films, the bad guys explain their evil plan in detail. This allows the shocked widow to commit suicide, and thus giving Yuan the opportunity to finally take on the bad guys, no longer being entrapped to choose between killing the whole family of the crippled clan chief in exchange for the widow's life.

Perhaps some might think the ending was a little too neat. For me, it came as quite a relief. Aside from the plot, the fight scenes were also very well choerographed.

However, those expecting non-stop action might be disappointed, as this film emphasizes a plot with a heavy fantasy element (Jackie plays an archaeologist in modern day Hong Kong who contanstly dreams of a beautiful woman, such that he may be the reincarnation of an ancient general who loved a Korean princess sent to the Chinese emperor to be a concubine).

None the less, the story unfolds in ancient times and the present day, the dialogue includes English, Mandarin, Cantonese, and Korean being spoken, and the fight scenes range from a hilarious encounter between Jackie and Indian cops in a factory, to an impressive set-piece battle involving heavily armored Imperial Qin infantry and cavalry against similarly equipped rebels, so it's quite impressive that a film can coherently emcompass all that.

All in all, an interesting piece of work to experience.

First of all, this plot and setting of this movie have absolutely nothing to do with the original movie.

The bizarre costumes (somewhat of a blend of medieval European and ancient Chinese), the gorgeous scenery, and the cute lead girls (particularly Gillian) provide lots of eye candy, and there are a few decent fight scenes (including one between Donnie Yen and Jackie Chan, I belive the 1st time these two have squared off on-screen), but there just wasn't enough action. Also, if it was some sort of a joke to have Donnie Yen's character called "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," it fell completely flat on me.

This movie is also touted as the debut of Jackie Chan's son, but he doesn't perform much of any martial arts, and if he's to follow in Dad's footsteps doing movies, I hope his acting ability gets better.

The movie wasn't a total stinker, but with so many major Hong Kong stars in major roles or cameos, I expected a lot more.

So it is the case in this movie that desperate humans once more need Godzilla to defeat nasty aliens who have come to conquer the Earth. These aliens have taken control of virtually all the infamous monsters who have come and gone in the long Godzilla franchise, making them appear all at once to wreck havoc. They don't limit themselves to just bashing on poor Tokyo though, but they show up all once to stomp on cities as diverse as Paris, Sydney, and New York.

Thus, when all seems lost for the human race, it's up to the brave crew of the last remaining Earth warship to wake Godzilla from hibernation, and the real fun begins when Godzilla starts kicking butt one after another through a gamut of nearly a dozen monsters, although in the end he gets some timely help from Mothra and a human with super powers.

This is silly, escapist fun at its best.

Therefore, I got this one stictly out of curiousity, as it is based on a campaign during the Civil War between Mao Tse-tung and Chiang Kai-shek in the late 1940s.

There was indeed a large scale battle scene, as well as long distance shots of seemingly endless columns of troops and tanks marching across smoky landscapes, but I found the film rather dull. Much of it involved talk, talk, and more talk about politics or military strategy. Perhaps the most impressive thing about the movie was that the actors onscreen bore nearly flawless resemblences to historial figures such as Mao, Chiang, and Deng Xiaoping.

I watched the film with an open mind, but unless you like sitting through 3 hours of talking punctuated with a couple of battles, this is probably not for you.

The woman inadvertently awakened him by falling into his tomb bears an identical resemblance to the lover he last saw thousands of years ago (so naturally she is also played by Gong Li). The rest of film involves various gags as the hero (played by the director Zhang Yimou himself) struggles to understand the new world around him, ultimately ending in climactic battle against tomb rombers. Gong Li's 2nd character, who is pretty annoying at first, also ends up falling in love with him, completing the story arc.

The attempts at humor during the film don't work very well, but the effectiveness of the romantic tragedy angle compensate for that.

Seeing it now, it wasn't as satisfying as the other Bruce Lee films I've seen. He uses more of rough street fighting style, and doesn't show off very much of his trademark speedy kicks and punches like his earlier work.

Also, the limitations of the special effects are quite obvious in some scenes that apparently were completed after Bruce Lee died, such as the dressing room scene where his face was awkwardly spliced upon someone else's head.

Moreover, seeing the film now I couldn't help but wonder why the bad guys make such sparing use of guns. None the less, seeing the final fight sequence where Bruce ascends the stairs of the restaurant level by level brought back fond memories of the days when I watched this and other martial arts action flicks during the Saturday afternoon TV kung fu theater matinees.

Get this one if you want to complete your Bruce Lee collection, but I recommend more highly the sequel "Tower of Death." I thought the fights in that one were much better choreographed and interesting.